It Only Has to Strike Once
by Rudolfs0807
Summary: Just a Kataang tragedy. It'd kinda my guilty pleasure. Charecter death. Please review.


**As usual I don't own Avatar.**

**Yes this yet another tragedy; they're my guilty pleasure! **

**Tell me what you think!**

**A/N: This takes place after the day of Black sun. **

It Only Has to Strike Once

The two benders ran down the hallway of the Fire Nation palace; rushing past all of the gawking staff that were still roaming the halls.

"Huh," commented Aang, "I thought the Fire Lord would have gone into hiding again and taken his staff with him."

"Yeah," agreed Katara, "That is really odd. It's probably a trap…"

"Well if it is, it's too late now."

They rounded the corner and saw the massive doors of the throne room straight ahead of them. Aang blasted the doors with a wave of air and the doors practically flew off their hinges.

The two leapt through the clearing smoke and saw Ozai and Azula behind a squad of Royal Guards.

"Ah, the Avatar and his girlfriend; I knew you would show up." said Ozai mockingly. The Air bender and the Water bender assumed fighting stances. "Guards, Kill them." Ozai ordered.

The two master benders made short work of the guards; no more than five minutes passed from the start to the finish. Unfortunately those five minutes gave Ozai and Azula time to get ready to fight them.

"Your slowness has sealed you doom Avatar!" laughed Ozai, "You had the element of surprise and you wasted it on the guards. You will never defeat me now!"

Azula stepped out and stood in front of Katara, "You're mine, you Water Tribe whore." Azula sneered.

"Bring it on bitch!" Katara retorted, "I've been waiting for a rematch!"

With a cruel grin on her face Azula launched herself at the water tribe girl as Ozai began to pelt Aang with fireballs. The two battles raged across the throne room; Katara and Azula seemed to be evenly matched, neither having a clear advantage. Katara was just starting to despair, when she felt something right beneath the floor: A water pipe. Thinking quickly, she maneuvered herself so Azula had to step right on the pipe to get at her. As soon as Azula was in place she ruptured the pipe and caused the water to burst through the floor; the torrent hit Azula and slammed her against the stone wall, knocking her unconscious. Katara froze her to the wall for good measure. She turned and saw that Aang had been cornered by the Fire Lord.

Aang's fight had going fairly well; he had dodged and evaded most of the Fire Lord's attacks and had countered with his own. After Aang landed a good blow on Ozai with a blast of air, the Fire Lord decided to get serious; he relentlessly attacked Aang with advanced fire bending techniques, and eventually backed the boy into a corner. Which was Aang's current situation: him in a corner and Ozai standing in front of him laughing maniacally.

"It's over Avatar!" cried Ozai, "I've won at last!" he then shot a bolt of lightning at the Avatar. To Aang things seemed to happen in slow motion: he saw the white hot bolt coming towards him and knew that he wasn't fast enough to dodge it; then out of the corner of his eye he saw a wall of water headed towards him with the girl he loved following close behind it. The water intercepted the lightning then turned and slammed right into Ozai. Katara skidded in on a sheet of ice but was unable to check her forward momentum; she slipped and fell down. As Aang went to help her up, he saw something white streak in from his peripheral vision; he got his staff up to block the lightning that he knew was headed his way, but he soon realized that he wasn't the lightning's intended target. He watched, horrified, as the deadly electricity slammed into Katara's chest sending the water bender flying a great many yards.

"No!!" screamed Aang. He smashed Ozai with a blast of air and a wave of earth, sending the fire bender soaring towards the other side of the chamber.

Aang quickly rushed to Katara's side; as he reached her she whispered to him, "Don't worry about me, take out Ozai or all of this will have been for nothing." Quivering with rage, Aang saw the dictator running toward him and entered the Avatar state; the only difference was that he was in complete control of it.

With his newfound power he pummeled Ozai into submission and ripped the Fire Lord's ability to bend from his body; he then did the same to Azula's bending. Then he quickly rushed to Katara's side. He noticed the huge wound that the lightning had caused; he could see the bare bone of her ribcage in a few places. It was quite obvious that no amount of healing was going to help: she wasn't going to make it.

"No!!" he screamed tears streaming down his face, "It's not fair! I finally defeat the Fire Lord and now I'm going to lose you!"

"Aang," Katara said weakly, her voice barely a whisper, "The war's over, we won; what it cost doesn't matter."

"Yes it does!" he responded, "I did everything for you! Katara, I love you; I can't believe I waited this long to tell you and now it's too la-"

He stopped talking because Katara had put a finger to his lips, dragged his head down to where hers was and kissed him. Their kiss was long and passionate; they tried to fill it with all the love and happiness they would have shared together if tragedy hadn't struck.

"I love you too," she said as they broke apart. Suddenly a spasm wracked her body and she coughed up blood. Her hand slid into his and gripped it hard.

"No, I can't lose you Katara, not now,"

"Aang," she said as her strength started to fade, "...I want you to promise me something,"

"Anything," he responded gripping her hand with all his strength.

"Then promise me you won't blame yourself for this; promise me you'll move on and find someone else; promise me you'll be happy."

"Katara, don't talk like that, I can still-"

"Promise me!!" she said fiercely.

"I-I promise," Aang said solemnly crying harder.

"Thank you," she said her face softening, "Aang this time I've gotten to... spend with you over the past year has been the best time of my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything; I love you Aang." Another spasm passed through her; her hand tightened briefly on his then went limp.

"Katara?" the Avatar whispered, his voice shaking, "No…"

The Avatar's mournful, anguish filled cries could be heard by the troops in the palace courtyard.

Aang did his best to keep his promise to Katara; he mourned for much of the first year, but the pain dulled with time and he moved on. To everyone's surprise he started dating Toph and eventually married her; and although he loved the earth bender very much, not a day went by that he didn't think about Katara.


End file.
